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My personal cloud storage solutions

Published Dec 20, 2022 02:59 pm

Everybody needs storage that they can access from anywhere - at home, on the road, at school and/or office - and nothing beats a cloud storage solution. Yeah, the cloud means "somebody else's computer", but there is value in the convenience it brings. I have been thinking about the best possible solution for me (and my family), and came up with the following, in no particular order:

iCloud+

I subscribe to AppleOne Premier which gives me and every account on my Family Sharing can access a shared 2TB of storage. This is the easiest storage for the family since we all have access to an Apple device. Now with Advanced Data Protection for iCloud (ADPi) enabled, the drive is protected with end-to-end encryption. Files can be access through the Files app on iOS/iPadOS and on Finder on MacOS. Browser-based accessed is OFF by default with ADPi enabled, but you can turn it on. Major issue with iCloud Drive is that you cannot access it from another operating system or smartphone. Personally, I wish that there is a way to mount it on my Linux device.

Proton Drive

Proton Drive is a new storage service from the creators of the privacy-first ProtonMail. Like its email product, ProtonDrive is fully end-to-end encrypted. I have a personal subscription to Proton that provides me with email, VPN and Drive. Unfortunately, you can only access the files on ProtonDrive via the browser or its applications. The iOS/iPadOS application does not, for some reason, work with the Files.app. Similarly, there is no way to mount it from Linux.

Koofr

This might not be a popular cloud storage provider, but I just subscribed to 1TB for several years, like 50 years? Anyway, Koofr is based in the EU (Germany specifically), which is protected by GDPR (unlike US-based servers). Unlike iCloud and Proton Drive, Koofr does not provide end-to-end encryption. So why did I subscribe to it? First, it allows me to access the drive on all the platforms that I use (Mac, iPhone, iPad, Linux and browser). What makes it even better is that I can mount the drive from any WebDAV client! Finally, what makes Koofr unique is its support for rclone.org - which provides me with a way to add end-to-end encryption (although limited only to my Mac and Linux box). Cool, eh

NextCloud

NextCloud is a free, open source software that allows you to self-host your own Google Workspace alternative (minus the Gmail, although Nextcloud has email clients you can add). I deployed my own NextCloud server at home, on a 2TB drive, which I now share with the family! Nextcloud provides access via the browser, applications, or like Koofr, any WebDAV client. End-to-end encryption can be enabled, too.

Generic Shared Network Storage

If your WiFi router supports external USB-storage, then this is also a good alternative. I have an old Asus broadband router that I have flashed with a free, open source firmware, and it now serves as a file server sharing a 2TB drive. This local-only storage provides my family with more storage for files that are mostly shared within our network, but access from remote can be done via VPN (yes, I have a VPN server at home, too).

What about the popular ones? Well, I have NextCloud, Google Workspace Drive and Microsoft OneDrive from work, but I limit my personal use of these resources. I do use rclone.org on these cloud storage to add end-to-end encryption. 

I almost forget, in addition to rclone.org, I have Cryptomator which allows me to create an encrypted disk on these popular cloud storage providers, and access it using their app that is available on almost all popular platforms. Unlike Proton Drive, I can access Cryptomator storage from the Files.app on iOS/iPadOS, too. Unfortunately, you cannot do this from the browser.

Each of us generates GBs of data every week (documents, photos, videos, and more) and having a storage solution that is accessible *and* encrypted (end-to-end, not encrypted by someone else like your provider) is very important. Choose wisely.

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